Maria Gaetana Agnesi, the real-life Emma Woodhouse

"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich."

Jane Austen's "Emma" sums up a woman's standing in England during the nineteenth century. Only riches will give her the chance to do what she wants, but she must face the inevitable, which is to find a man to spend a lifetime with in able to keep her place. This norm also exists in the continent, not much different during the centuries before. There are more of Emma's kind, whom history paints as anonymous, as phallocracy rules. These are smart ladies, as they know how to play with the rules.

Maria Gaetana Agnesi can be considered as the real-life Emma Woodhouse, as she is the first woman in the Western world to gain a reputation as a mathematician. This momumental achievement can be compared to Christopher Columbus's discovery of the New World. Most Europeans didn't see the value of education for women, but Maria Gaetana proved otherwise. Pietro Agnesi, Maria Gaetana's father, was a mathematics professor at the University of Bologna. His family was wealthy and literate, but Pietro wanted to be a part of the nobility. He achieved this goal when he married Anna Fortunata Brivio. Maria Gaetana was born on May 16, and at an early age, she showed such promise, becoming fluent in different languages. Her parents were proud of this, as well of her other abilities, such as they showed her off during parties (that they hosted).

The environment would play a part in her upbringing, of how she would end up as one of her kind. Would Maria Gaetana showed devotion to mathematics - and other fields of knowledge - if she spent a lot of time outdoors? Home was where she should be, but something happened. Her mother died when she was young, and not long after, her father remarried. She ended up being the oldest of the twenty three children, her half siblings included. But it would be a blessing in disguise, sort of, as she would teach her brothers and sisters. Maria Gaetana rather read and study, which affected her health. This didn't deter her from her passion, but she had one desire. The young lady yearned for the religious life, serving the less privileged. Her father wasn't in favor of this saint-like existence, but she did it later in life.

Below were the things that made Maria Gaetana Agnesi special:

1. She was called the Seven-Tongued Orator, having learned Greek, German, Hebrew, Latin, and Spanish by the age of eleven.

2. Her best-known work, "The Analytical Institutions for the Use of Italian Youth", explored algebra.

3. She published a series of essays on philosophy and natural science entitled Propositiones Philosophicae.

4. Her claim to fame would be the mathematical curve named after her, drawing a line from the source through the circle of radius.

5. She also published a vernacular version of the Italian dissertation on higher education for women, which was done by one of her tutors.